Nissan Note e-POWER firms for Oz

With only one electrified model in its current range, the Pathfinder Hybrid, Nissan Australia must be suffering from range anxiety of a different kind if it really believes a third of all the vehicles it sells will be hybrid or electric by 2022.

But beyond the second-generation Nissan LEAF, which arrives later than expected in mid-2019 at a price that’s still unknown, hybrid models like the Nissan Note and the next-generation JUKE, QASHQAI, X-TRAIL and Pathfinder could well help it achieve its goal.

Speaking to motoring.com.au at the 2019 Nissan LEAF reveal in Sydney yesterday, Nissan Australia managing director, Stephen Lester said: “One-third of the volume will be available with an electrified platform. By introducing more electric alternatives on several of our key models, we will make mass-market electrification a reality.”

While Lester would not clarify which models he was referring to, the ‘key models’ are likely to include e-POWER (series hybrid) versions of the Nissan Note – currently Japan’s top-selling car – as well as the redesigned JUKE (due in 2019), QASHQAI and X-TRAIL (both due in 2020).

Nissan’s electric vehicle volume could also be augmented by Nissan’s NV range of commercial vehicles and the Pathfinder Hybrid is also highly likely to undergo a renovation by 2022.

In the Nissan Note e-POWER (pictured), Nissan’s e-POWER series hybrid system employs a 40kW electric motor to drive the front wheels and a 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol engine to recharge the 1.5kWh battery pack as required. The efficiencies gleaned by the powertrain result in a claimed fuel consumption figure of just 2.7L/100km.

Nissan unveiled plans in April to launch three new EVs and five e-POWER models in Japan by April 2022 – the end of its current mid-term plan – and those vehicles are expected to account for 40 per cent of the company’s sales in its domestic market.

By April 2025, Nissan expects half of its domestic sales to be electric or e-POWER models and hopes to sell one million electrified vehicles (e-POWER and EVs) globally per year.

Nissan Australia’s EV volume aspirations start with the return of its original battery-powered model, the LEAF, in long-awaited second-generation guise by June next year. Nissan previously promised to launch the new LEAF here by March 2019.

However, the new Nissan LEAF -- which is likely to cost at least $50,000 in premium guise when it finally arrives, given it’s priced between $40,876 and $49,291 in the US – will represent only a tiny fraction of the 20,000 or so EVs that Nissan hopes to sell in Australia each year by 2022.

The company is likely to beef up LEAF volume with variants such as the sporty LEAF NISMO and the extended-range LEAF E-Plus.

In the meantime, it is talking up the gradual acceptance of EVs from a very low base in Australia, where there are virtually no government incentives on offer, where the majority of electricity comes from coal-fired power stations and where little more than 1000 EVs have been sold so far this year – about a tenth of one per cent of the total market.

A Nissan-commissioned study found that two in three Australians (63 per cent) feel the move to EVs is inevitable and that a third (29 per cent) is already considering buying an EV.

The independent study also shows that almost two-thirds (62 per cent) of Australians are more open to a hybrid or electric vehicle than they were five years ago, with half saying they thought EVs are cool and trendy.